Overpass Art

I'm typing this on my laptop. My pretty new desktop is a brick. I'm going to go into the expensive paperweight business. Anybody want a $2k paperweight?

A techie was sent over by my desktop's manufacturer last night. He was there to exchange motherboards in hopes it would solve the Blue Screen of Death problem I have been experiencing on occasion. Well I guess success is all in how you define it. I am no longer occasionally experiencing blue screens. Now my computer won't do anything but blue screen.

(I was just looking at what I have written; realized I had used blue screen as both a noun and a verb, and considered what my mother's reaction to such sloppy language would have been. Then I realized that she died long before computers became ubiquitous and blue screen became part of our lexicon. Lucky her.)

And as my luck would have it, I have finally instituted a backup regime that turns out to have saved my data's bacon. I could go and drop the damned machine off a freeway overpass, into the path of a Mac truck, and I would not be in any worse shape data-wise than I am now. Of course the machine's makers are sending UPS out to retrieve my computer. I assume they will cannibalize it for needed parts, and throw the left over screws and chips to their children. They will be the ones to enjoy the evisceration of this infernal machine-turned-brick. I will only have the enjoyment of waiting to see if the new/refurbished/hand-me-down machine they send me is more flawed than the first or only sucks just as bad. At this point I'd almost be happy with a computer that blue screen's just occasionally.

If any of you truck drivers who read my blog (and I'm sure you are legion) see a computer drop into your path from an overpass, it won't be by me.